hello, I'm trying to burn a set of files to a CD and the order is important. It's a set of architectural plans and the order is important because the one who gets this CD will be printing the plans out frequently and it is important that they are printed out and bound together in the proper order. The problem is, every time I burn a CD, even though I set the file order manually, this order is overwritten whenever I open the CD on a new computer. It likes to order them alphabetically. For example, there are fil--10, a2-11, a2-12, and a2-13. This is the proper order, but when the computer orders them alphabetically, we get a2-10 through a2-13 coming right after a2-1 (i.e. the order becomes a2-1, a2-10, a2-11, a2-12, a2-1-6, a2-7, a2-8, and a2-9). We can't have this. The person who gets this CD must see the proper order. I can't order them in the way I want with the options under view -> arrange icons by -> ... because this order is arbitrary from the computer's point of view. Even if I uncheck autoarrange and organize them manually, it doesn't preserve my order. I need a way of preserving the initial order of files (and folders) when burning to a CD and opening it on different computers. Is there a way?

Use this number format for your files, 01 - filename 02 - filename 03 - filename etc. It's a pain in the butt, this is the only way I know that will force them alphabetically...

Appendixed to wombat post: If there are hundreds of files, use the following format instead: 001 - filename 002 - filename 003 - filename etc. If thousands then: 0001 - filename 0002 - filename 0003 - filename etc. i_Xp/VistaUser

Yes, that's what I resolved to do. If it was thousands of file, I may be better off writing a program to rename them :)

This may be of use as well, I have not used it myself so cannot vouch for it. http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/...

You are confusing the order of files with the way they are presented to the particular OS/user. Most modern OS's care nothing about order of the files. To be correct you could use track by track with a .cue file or use *nix's burning apps. Again that has little to do with the users OS and preset preferences. Sounds like you are over-thinking this deal or need smarter users. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.